About

Chronicles of Elyria - Epic Story MMORPG with Aging & Death

$1,361,435

pledged of $900,000 goal

10,752

backers

Revisiting for Updates? Check the bottom of the page for Stretch Goals, Announcements, new images, etc.

Note: Project funding will continue on our site ChroniclesOfElyria.com after the Kickstarter ends, starting Monday June 6th. We will offer the ability to upgrade your existing pledge (outright or through a layaway system) starting in ~3 weeks when the Kickstarter pledges are integrated with CoE forum accounts.

We will continue funding toward Stretch Goals through November 2016.

Chronicles of Elyria is the first MMORPG where your character ages and dies, encouraging you to think beyond your character to their role in a larger story.

Fearless in its design, it embraces a character's ability to impact other characters. A closed economy, finite resources, non-repeatable quests, and a fully destructible environment means the world is experienced differently for every character.

Fully destructible world means we'll see some epic sieges.

Each time you log in there is a dynamic world waiting for you. Local, regional, and national conflicts are continuously unfolding, giving birth to repeated opportunities for you to change the course of history.

• Aging, Dying, & Souls | An epic 10-year story line invites you to experience your character over multiple lifetimes. With each life you will develop your character and make your mark in the Chronicles. When your character eventually dies, their soul will be reincarnated stronger than before and their spirit and destiny will live on in another character of your making.

In CoE your body ages & dies, but Souls live forever.

Characters age in-game over the course of 10-14 real-world months. During that time your character will grow old and eventually die, leaving their mark on history. But while alive you must choose your actions carefully, as each in-game death reduces your overall lifespan (by approximately 2 days) and brings your character that much closer to permadeath. However, if you're an influential player (the king perhaps), each in-game death is more impactful, leading to permadeath in just 4 or 5 times.

After a coup de grace you'll walk the Astral Plane to return to your body.

• Player Skill Matters | It's no longer about getting to level cap and pursuing the best gear. In CoE a player's skill - their timing, speed, and strategy - makes a difference. The combat system requires you to dodge, parry, and manage your stamina - not just spam buttons. Crafting also requires player skill, with mini-games designed to make crafting more than just clicking a button.

• Offline Player Characters | To maintain realism, your character remains in-game from the moment of creation until permadeath because you wouldn't want to be interacting with a merchant only to have them sign out and disappear from the world. We've solved this with AI scripts to support your character while offline. This allows you to train skills, run your shop, and defend yourself while you're AFK.

• Non-Repeatable Quests | Tired of killing 20 bunnies destroying a farmer's crops, only to see 50 other characters complete the same quest? We're doing away with NPC quest hubs by enabling other players to give out tasks. That same OPC merchant may run out of reagents, leading them to ask you to bring 10 elixirs back from a far off city, utilizing the contract system to ensure delivery.

• No World or Mini-Map | Map makers and cartographers have a place in CoE, helping players navigate their world. But watch out, because treasure maps can be faked and locations may be renamed, leading NPCs to refer to a town by the most used name.

Is that a treasure map or will you find bandits ready to attack?

• Game-Enforced Player Contracts | Implicit and explicit contracts enable you to develop unique, never-before-seen meta content. Signing in-game contracts between players creates a binding agreement so you can safely operate your business. Sign trade contracts to create a shipping business. Employ other players to procure hard-to-find resources. Sell your services as an expert assassin and be confident you’ll receive payment. The possibilities are endless and only limited by your creativity!

• Sparks of Life | Chronicles of Elyria utilizes a new business model never before seen in MMOs. CoE hearkens back to the coin-op arcade model where, for $30, players buy a Spark of Life that grants a soul the opportunity to live for between 10 and 14 months, before establishing your Soul in a new character of your choosing. (Note: 1 Spark of Life comes with purchase of the game.)

In CoE, bodies age and die, but Souls live forever. In your new body, whether that be your heir or someone else entirely, your Skill Ramp will get you back up to power quickly & allow you to advance further than in your previous life.

The Spark of Life system also helps reduce griefing. If you kill another character in-game, your face goes up on a wanted poster and a bounty token is created for you. This not only keeps you out of cities, but also means you can be taken to 'jail' which significantly reduces your lifespan, adding real financial repercussions to your in-game decisions.

• Influence Points (IP) and Earn to Play (E2P) | In Chronicles of Elyria, the Story Points you earn (by completing in-game activities that help advance the story) can be traded in between lifetimes in order to buy Sparks of Life. This is what we call the “Earn-to-Play” model of funding.

Influence Points (Influence or IP) are our pre-launch currency, used to track the most influential community members who earn IP by recruiting other players, substantial contributions to the community, or Kickstarter funding. IP currency features heavily in the Kickstarter campaign, allowing people to earn IP which can be spent in the IP store prior to the official launch date. Influence provides benefits such as early access, special rewards, and currency to purchase in-game property, titles, and items.

• MMORPG Meets Survival Game | With limited inventory, hunger and thirst, drowning and fatigue, and dangerous landscapes containing both sweltering heat and frigid cold, a character must be truly heroic to become a hero. The riches are real and adventurers can become the wealthiest and most powerful in the world - if they can survive the harsh environments.

Weather has in-game effects on survival, speed of movement & more.

• Character Customization | Your character is created as a part of a family, and thus is bound by the laws of genetics for that family. Joining a group of squat, redheaded bakers? You likely won’t start out as a lithe, blond haired adventurer.

Parents genetics plays a role in character creation.

However, in CoE characters change dramatically even after character creation. Your character ages from 15 to ~100, and will look their age. Scars develop and fade over time. Hair grows while in the wilderness and may be re-styled while in town.

Your character’s body adjusts to your play style, so you know when approaching a twig of a player who claims to be a blacksmith, that you probably shouldn’t trust his word. This also means you can grow out of your armor, so watch what you eat!

• Freedom of Movement | Chronicles of Elyria's combat mechanics do not rely on auto-attacks or hot-bar buttons. Instead, CoE uses Left & Right mouse buttons to chain combat techniques together into combos.

These combos are configurable in the UI, allowing players to develop their own personal combat style using different techniques for each weapon they use.

Jump, dodge, flip, parry, climb, and more in CoE.

• Fully Skill-based Character Development | With dozens of skills across multiple categories including fighting, gathering, crafting, survival, bardic, and deviant, you can develop the character you’ve always wanted to. With a skill system that rewards failure instead of success, and mechanics requiring player skill in addition to character skill, you must take on ever-increasing challenges if you want to be the best.

• Family, Land, & Housing System | Be a part of a player ran family, inheriting titles, riches, and character traits from your parents and ancestors. Marry someone (opposite or same gender) and have kids, using a Child Contract, to build out your dynasty.

Characters marry and have children in-game.

Use your lands to grow crops and farm, or lease land to others to build player-ran towns. Set laws, acquire resources, and grow your domain from hamlet to kingdom. The fully destructible and buildable world means you can truly create your own village from the ground up. It also means you'll protect your loot, leading to player-created dungeons.

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Want to read more? We have a bunch of Design Journals to describe the various game mechanics. Here are just a few:

UPDATES:

This partnership answers the fundamental question, "How are you going to build a world this large, with a hundred thousands players, and all these never-before-seen features?!" The answer is SpatialOS.

SpatialOS will act as the fabric that our game is built on. It's the server technology that will allow us to support millions of entities in the world. Built first and foremost as a scalable, distributed operating system for games, SpatialOS means we don't have to spend time developing the things that generally take the most time when building a new MMO.

We don't have to worry about networking on the server, load balancing all the entities in the world, replication of entities across multiple server nodes, cross-process communication, collision detection of millions of entities, etc. In short, we don't have to worry about developing any of the technology that makes an MMO, an MMO.

Instead, we get to focus all of our resources on developing the game mechanics that makes Chronicles of Elyria truly unique.

MOUNTS

Concept art of Ursaphant mount

Concept art of War Trison mount

PETS

Concept art of 2 of 5 possible pets

We've turned to Kickstarter to fund this project because traditional game publishers won't take this risk. They are incentivized to clone the latest success and merely re-skin it. But not all players want a WoW clone or to play the same game every time. Our innovative ideas come FROM gamers FOR gamers. WE want to play this game, so we turn to YOU to help make that happen.

We also realize that to effectively complete all of these amazing ideas will require a lot of cash. That's why we've invested half a million dollars to self-fund pre-production thus far and have another $500K committed from investors.

We also promised to only go to Kickstarter once we had a playable demo (combat demo released at PAX East) and substantial development to show. This is not just a concept that we're presenting. It's a game in the making that we need your help to bring to fruition.

Soulbound Studios was created to bring together experienced game developers without the constraints of previous companies. Our current team of 16 will grow dramatically after the Kickstarter, but we'll continue look for people who want to create something truly inspiring.

Sean Beeson, an Academy Award winning composer, is creating the soundtrack for Chronicles of Elyria. His epic music has already been heard on our videos thus far, and you can hear more in his CoE SoundCloud.

To take advantage of any Add-Ons, you'll need to:

Click the “Manage Your Pledge” button. If you haven’t backed this project yet, it will read “Back This Project”.

Increase your pledge in the Pledge Amount box by the add-on(s) you wish to purchase. Keep your pledge tier the same.

Then add the total of your add-on(s) to the original tier value.

You can choose from these Add-Ons:

$10 - Villager Token*

$10 - Guild Member Token*

$25 - 1 additional Spark of Life

$30 - Extra copy of the game with a Carriage for Two

$10 - 100 Influence Points (IP)

$25 - 275 Influence Points (IP)

$35 - 400 Influence Points (IP)

$50 - 600 Influence Points (IP)

$75 - 925 Influence Points (IP)

$100 - 1250 Influence Points (IP)

* Villager and Guild Member Tokens can be given to town Mayors or Guild Leaders as a way to contribute to the group. Your Villager Token will add land to the settlement. Your Guild Member Token will add IP to your guild, enabling faster research or power advancement.

You may have noticed that we have limited physical item tiers. We chose that intentionally, knowing the fulfillment of loots has sunk projects in the past. Also, some people are really interested in tchotchkes, while others aren't.

So rather than doubling our rewards tiers, we chose to use Merchandise Credits for a store on our site. This means that money isn't wasted fulfilling items for people who could care less (don't use the credit if you don't want the item), and those who want a lot of loot can choose what their hearts desire.

Items in the merchandise store will include these items, many of which can be signed by the team:

Collector's edition box

3D printed figurine

T-shirts

Art book

Custom Soulstone USB stick

Concept art poster

CoE decal

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ANNOUNCEMENT - Bank error in your favor! Time to celebrate! We messed up on Sparks of Life when creating the Kickstarter reward tiers.

Here are the actual additional Sparks of Life (note: 1 is included with the game, not mentioned in this list) that are awarded in each tier, each with a retail value of $30:

$75 : +1 Spark of Life (total of 1 extra)

$150 : +1 extra Sparks of Life (total of 2 extra)

$350 : +2 extra Sparks of Life (total of 4 extra)

$750 : +3 extra Sparks of Life (total of 7 extra)

$1,500 : +3 extra Sparks of Life (total of 10 extra)

$2,500 : +5 extra Sparks of Life (total of 15 extra)

$5,000 : +5 extra Sparks of Life (total of 20 extra)

Note: This overwrites any mentioned of Sparks of Life in the reward tiers. You can also see these changes reflected in the reward tier chart images below.

Stretch Goals

Read more about these Stretch Goals, the reasoning behind the spread, and more in this Update.

Risks and challenges

Game development is never easy and MMOs are the most demanding of the lot. We know these risks and have planned and estimated accordingly.

We have an established team of 16 people, funded from CEO, Jeromy Walsh’s, own money for the last year.

Soulbound Studios promises to:

• Continue developer transparency & the access levels we’ve become known for
• Publish & update our schedule on the CoE website
• Use ALL Kickstarter funds on ONLY the development of Chronicles of Elyria

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

URSAPHANT RIDER (digital)

• Alpha 2 access (invite only, closed, NDA, servers will be wiped)
• You are the proud owner of your very own Ursaphant mount¹
• $25 merchandise credit for store on CoE site where you can purchase physical items such as a collector's edition box, figurines, shirts, etc.
• 175 Influence Points (IP) - see chart for options
• Access to expanded sigils for the Coat of Arms
• In-game decorative artwork¹ to place in your house
• Forum Badge - Ursaphant Rider

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $750 or more
About $750

ARTISAN (digital)

• Work with the development team to design a Tattoo or Hairstyle³ for your character and then get the exclusive Pattern for it on your server (you can share it or not)
• Additional $50 merchandise credit ($100 total)
• 675 Influence Points (IP) - see chart for options
• We'll list your name in the Credits under Special Thanks
• Forum Badge - Artisan

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

BREW MASTER (digital)

• Get access to a special monthly video chat Q&A with the development team
• Upgrade your Design Experience to a Food, Drink, or Potion³. Get the exclusive Pattern (you can share it or not) and the item in-game.
• 925 Influence Points (IP) - see chart for options
• Forum Border - Brew Master
• Forum Badge - Brew Master

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $2,000 or more
About $2,000

CELEBRITY (digital)

• Get an invite to the official Launch Party for Chronicles of Elyria (you cover travel & lodging expenses)
• Upgrade your Design Experience to an Ring, Necklace, or other Accessory³. Get the exclusive Pattern (you can share it or not) and the item in-game.
• Custom in-game Portrait of yourself as a noble ancestor to put in your house²
• 1,900 Influence Points (IP) - see chart for options
• Forum Border - Celebrity
• Forum Badge - Celebrity

+++ Plus all previous rewards +++

Notes:
2- This item is destructible. That's why we've given Kickstarter backers the pattern to recreate them if lost.
3- Subject to developer approval.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $3,500 or more
About $3,500

DUKE/DUCHESS (digital)

• Start the game as one of a limited number of Dukes or Duchesses. Choose your Duchy in the world of Elyria & name it³.
• Upgrade your Design Experience to a full suit of Armor³ for your character. Get the exclusive Pattern (you can share it or not) and the item in-game.
• Join us for a personal Studio Tour of Soulbound Studios in Seattle and test an early version of the game in person (you cover travel & lodging expenses)
• Cloak identifying rank¹
• 3,400 Influence Points (IP) - see chart for options
• Forum Border - Duke
• Forum Badge - Duke

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

CHIMERA...OR KARATE (physical)

• Upgrade your Design Experience to create a unique Creature³ to be found in Elyria. Create the next Ursiphant, Canis Rabbit, or Trison for the players of CoE to enjoy.
• Or upgrade your design experience to create an entirely new fighting style in game. You'll learn it and can teach it to others.
• Get a custom canvas Signed Concept Art of your creature made for you by Art Director Eddie Smith
• Join the team in Seattle for a Private Dinner and gaming (you cover travel & lodging expenses)
• Cloak identifying rank¹
• 4,900 Influence Points (IP) - see chart for options
• We'll list you in the Credits as a Design Advisor
• Forum Border - Chimera
• Forum Badge - Chimera

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10,000
About $10,000

KING/QUEEN (physical)

• Start the game as one of a limited number of Kings or Queens. Choose your Kingdom in the world of Elyria & give it a name³.
• Design your Crown³ with the dev team
• Design your custom Crest³ with the dev team
• Upgrade your Design Experience to create a unique story-driven World Event, Boss, or Castle³ (and get, if applicable, the Pattern).
• Get a custom canvas Signed Concept Art of your event, boss, or castle made just for you by Art Director Eddie Smith
• You and a guest are invited to an epic Weekend of Gaming with CoE's founder, Jeromy Walsh, and the team (you cover travel expenses, we'll cover lodging)
• 10,000 Influence Points (IP) - see chart for options
• We'll list you in the Credits as a Design Advisor
• Forum Border - King
• Forum Badge - King